Posts under Machine Learning

Last week marked another milestone for the public cloud. I had the opportunity to attend Amazon Web Services (AWS) re:Invent, along with more than 43,000 other attendees who descended on Las Vegas to hear how organizations are using the cloud, learn from more than 1,300 technical sessions, and catch a highly anticipated lineup of product announcements from AWS (an exhaustive list can be found here). AWS re:Invent registration area AWS re:Invent record attendance

Machine learning (ML) can be a powerful tool for augmenting the detection efficacy of a cybersecurity solution. Using it effectively means first cutting through the hype and understanding the tangible steps needed to build models with it. The vast majority of enterprise security solutions – from antivirus applications to firewalls to intrusion detection and prevention systems – use (or at least claim to use) ML to detect threats that traditional approaches can’t, in many cases because such threats unfold faster or on a much larger scale than a traditional security solution can process.

At StackRox, we’re thrilled to have the support of Ron Gula, an industry luminary and invaluable mentor to me for the past decade. Ron is a longtime leader in the security community, having started his career at the National Security Agency (NSA) conducting penetration tests of government networks and performing advanced vulnerability research. Ron is also an experienced entrepreneur, CTO, and CEO, as the original author of the Dragon Intrusion Detection System, CTO of Network Security Wizards (acquired by Enterasys Networks), and cofounder of Tenable Network Security, where he served as CEO from 2002-2016.

The last few decades have seen tremendous progress in machine learning (ML) algorithms and techniques. This progress, combined with various open-source efforts to curate implementations of a large number of ML algorithms has lead to the true democratization of ML. It has become possible for practitioners with and without a background in statistical inference or optimization – the theoretical underpinnings of ML – to apply ML to problems in their domain.

Forensics in the age of containers You’ve seen it countless times in television’s most popular dramas: professional investigators descend on the scene of a crime to meticulously record and analyze every detail and clue before anyone else can disrupt the scene. If the crime appears to be related to other ongoing cases, clues are tacked to the peg board back at headquarters. Only once all the pieces have been assembled do patterns emerge.

Introduction Container technology has radically changed the way that applications are being developed and deployed. Notably, containers dramatically ease dependency management, so shipping new features or code is faster than ever before. While Docker containers and Kubernetes are great for DevOps, they also present new security challenges that both security practitioners and developers must understand and address with diligence. Docker’s team of security experts has built some valuable security features into the Docker platform over the last several years.

Shortly following our launch, I was a guest on Paul Asadoorian’s Startup Security Weekly show. In this episode, hear about how Sameer and I conceived the idea for the company, how we talked to investors about our ideas, and why our platform uniquely addresses the challenges of enterprises who are embracing containerization and microservices. We also discuss how enterprises are using StackRox to build security into the fabric of their infrastructures as they operationalize their use of containers and microservices.

I’ve worked to align government and commercial cybersecurity initiatives throughout my career, from the White House to Silicon Valley. It’s crystal clear to me that we’re stronger when we work together. I’ve been speaking frequently on this topic recently, as co-chair of the CSIS Cyber Policy Task Force for the 45th President, ally of the Hewlett Foundation, advisor to the UC Berkeley Center for Long-Term Cybersecurity, and affiliate of the Stanford University Center for Security and International Cooperation.

On our launch day, Ali and I were guests on Derrick Harris’ ARCHITECHT Show. Check out this podcast to hear about the origin of StackRox, why CISOs personally invested in our company, what we think about microservices, and how we work with Docker. Episode 29: StackRox founders on making microservices secure ARCHITECHT Show, StackRox co-founders Sameer Bhalotra and Ali Golshan break down the state of container security and the new technology they have built to solve it.

The microservices revolution is underway. Businesses using microservices have reduced their development time by as much as 75%, fueling software innovation and competitive advantage. Today more than half of all enterprises using microservices and container technologies like Docker and Kubernetes are running them in production. And a vibrant ecosystem of more than 125 companies including Amazon, Microsoft, Google, Red Hat, IBM, CoreOS, Mesosphere, and others, continues to grow rapidly.

It’s an exciting day in StackRox history - launching out of stealth mode, unveiling adaptive threat protection for containers, and announcing funding led by Sequoia Capital. We’re also launching our new website and blog today. We hope you’ll spend some time looking around: Read highlights of the StackRox platform Deep dive into the StackRox feature set Learn why Sequoia Capital is backing StackRox